Accessible Stade de France
What a great wheelchair-accessible experience, and what a show! I have admired Beyoncé for years, and seeing her perform live was on my bucket list for a long time.
The concert was on the same day as the FIFA world cup final. The game was projected on huge screens at the stadium before the concert, and when the French team won, it was just a big, great party all around! Even Beyoncé and Jay-Z wore the team shirts for one of their songs.
Accessibility
Stade de France is the biggest stadium in France, with ~80,000 seat occupancy, so you can imagine I was a little worried about getting around and finding our seats. To my surprise, when we arrived at the gate and presented our tickets to a wheelchair accessible area, a stadium staff member was assigned to us and accompanied us to our section pointing out accessible restrooms on the way (It would have taken us a long time to find the accessible elevator ourselves). Same after the show, we were accompanied back to the gate. Oh, and the view from the accessible section was great!
More information about accessibility at Stade de France in the following link
Getting there
The stadium is located in Saint-Denis, just outside of Paris. There is a train station just outside the stadium, but it’s not fully accessible; you have to reserve accessibility assistance 24 hours before your trip. After the “elevator out of order experience” (Paris post), we chose the wheelchair-accessible taxi option. The ride took about 30 minutes.
I have to put in a good word for the French people I’ve encountered on this trip, here is just one example:. After the concert. because of the World cup celebrations, getting a taxi was impossible, accessible or not. Since we didn’t have a local number, I asked two young women to try get us an Uber (my wheelchair is collapsible). Not only did they help us to get one, they waited with us for over 30 minutes until it arrived and made sure the driver had the correct address for our hotel. Thank you!
Overall, a wonderful service and experience!. If you’re thinking about attending a concert or a sports event at Stade de France, don’t hesitate!
Tali